Annnnnd broken laptop

Hello Lovely People,

Soooo I'm not going to be able to have a lot of updates this week, like I was planning to, because my laptop is busted:( Sad Panda :( But hopefully it'll be fixed soon before I get super busy with school so I can update and write more :D

Five Minute Friday: Friend

Hello Lovely People!

Five Minute Fridays were created by Lisa Jo-Baker. The essential goal of them is to be given a prompt and then write on it for five minutes without worrying about grammar, structure etc. For me, I like to use them as story prompts and idea creators; it's a good way to quickly come up with an idea that can later be fleshed out! For a link to all the Five Minute Friday's of this week, click here!

This week's prompt: Friend

Start

The girl sat back in her chair, satisfied. Mogie stared back at her, wide eyed at all the information he had been receiving. His tentacles waved in front of his mouth as he spoke.

"Lightbulb?" He pointed to the light fixture up above the scrubbed wooden table. The girl smiled.

"Yeah, that's a light bulb".

Mogie's tentacles waved in his approximation to a smile. He got up from his chair and pointed outside to the sun, which beamed across the wide, cow filled field.

"Lightbulb?"

The girl laughed, shaking her head.

"No, silly, that's the sun," she giggled, "it's our star."

"Star?"

"Yes, the sun is our star."

"Star," Mogie bubbled the word out " Star, star, starstarstar!"

The girl giggled some more as the alien hopped around the kitchen, occasionally blurting out "Star".

Suddenly she stopped as a car pulled into the driveway. Her face grew white with fear.

"Quick Mogie! Hide!" she said to him in a hushed voice, as if her mother was already in the house. She grabbed Mogie's hand, ignoring the slime on his tentically fingers as he made confused noises, still pointing to the sun.

The girl ran to the back of the house and pushed Mogie outside. "You've got to go, mom would freak if she saw you here."

"Go?" Mogie whimpered.

"Oh stop pretending, Mohammed! If my mom finds out I'm friends with you, she'll go beserk".

The boy pulled the noodles off of his face and hands with disappointment; he had liked playing the alien in their game, usually Anna claimed it first.

"Why doesn't she like me, Anna?" He scowled, "It's not fair."

"I know, but it's just... after the bombing..."

There was an intense silence as they both refused to look at one another. Mohammed kicked the ground furiously. "Ok... well, bye." he muttered as he turned away.

Anna watched him walk away for a moment, thinking. She hesitated before chasing after him, but chase him she did, not caring that her bare feet were getting in the cow patties. She grabbed his arm to turn him around, and pulled him into a hug.

"Look, I don't care what she thinks, ok?" she said, "I don't care if some other muslims did something horrible, they're not you. You're my friend no matter what, ok?" She pulled out of the embrace to look him straight on.

Mohammed looked at his feet before looking into her dust flecked eyes. He smiled.

"Ok."

Stop

Stories of Silence: Slip ups and Swordplay

Hello Lovely People,

The following is a story from my week of silence, if you just stumbled upon this randomly, click here for more of an explanation!

On day one, after the wool store encounter, I went home to do some work and procrastination. However later that night I went to hang out at a friend’s house and play geeky games. This resulted in the first time long term testing of the week of silence, as well as the first of several slip ups.

The slip ups over the course of the week usually occurred if I forgot the silence, if I was tired, or if it was a really awkward situation (more on THAT one later!). The first official slip up occurred on the bus.

It was a bus going towards downtown and, consequently, that meant it was packed to the seams. I couldn’t take a seat (well, technically I could, but I’m pretty sure it was covered in beer… at least I hope it was beer…). Anyway, I was standing up against the wall holding one of those super slippery hand holds.  The bus was careening doing the road at top speed, with everyone slipping and sliding everywhere, as per normal.

Now, I’ve ridden the bus long enough that a sudden brake usually doesn’t throw me off. But since I was using one of those stupid handholds I didn’t quite have my balance as normal. Consequentially, when the bus stopped for a light suddenly, I toppled forward into a nice blond lady. Before thinking about it, I blurted out a hurried “SORRY! Sorry!”

Crap!

I mean, I had the best intentions; I wanted to make sure the poor lady was ok after my clumsy self banged into her. But still, the first time slipping up stings, even if it’s for gratitude. The lady smiled and said that it was all right; I nodded back to her but still felt a little bothered by my small lapse. I knew I had to be more on the ball with my responses in the coming week, to make sure I wouldn’t slip up again!

Annnnnd yet, the second slip up happened not 20 minutes later.

Having left the bus, I started to walk to my friends, about 15 minutes from the stop. Along the way you have to cross a highway. I was waiting for the walk sign to come on when a friendly old man came up to me on a bike.

“Got to get my exercise in somehow,” he smiled at me “I hate that diesel smell!”

I smiled and nodded at him, hoping he wouldn’t want to chat.

“You from around here?”

I nodded yes.

“It’s a hard area for biking, but worth it for your legs!”

I kept trying to nod, but he wasn’t really looking at me, more concentrated on getting of his bike. I didn’t want to seem rude by not carrying on the conversation, but I really didn’t want to break my silence after just slipping up!

“Don’t you think?”

Feeling overwhelmed with his insistence, I popped internally and squeaked out a small “Yeah.”

Double Crap!

Well, the man seemed happy anyway  At this point, the walk light came on and he jogged across the intersection with his bike and a “Have a good day!” I waved back feebly while internally smacking myself on the head. Couldn’t I have found some other way of communicating to him without speaking? That’s the whole point of this endeavour isn’t it? Testing and trying a new form of communication? But I can’t do that if I’m too scared to actually try it! Mentally berating myself the whole way, I eventually made it to my friend’s house.

Here’s where things turned around. As I walked into my friend’s house, I was greeted with a great big hug and smile. She had read my initial blog post about not speaking, and was all for it! All my other friends who were there were also super into it, finding it really cool and interesting. The ones who hadn’t read the blog were filled in, and everyone settled down into the usual routine of geeky debates, shows and games.

Having this reception of excitement and intrigue gave me an instant boost of confidence. I might actually be able to do this, I thought. And, indeed, over the course of the evening, it got progressively easier to communicate without talking. At first it was a little difficult not being able to participate in the conversations that really interested me, but I found some posted notes in my purse which made it much easier. As the group found it hard to decipher my writing (fair, it does suck), one of the guys eventually pulled out his laptop for me to type with, making communication even faster! The evening passed by as customarily as it could for me being a mute, it almost became the norm.

Almost.

I had been there a couple of hours when some of the guys started debating sword play. One of the guys pulled out his wooden practice swords and suggested that they go out and spar for a bit. I thought this was really cool, so I went out to watch. Myself and another friend watched and took notes as they sparred, it was really quite interesting. I was very engrossed and didn’t think when I heard someone call my name behind me. Not paying attention I whirled around with a quick “Yeah?”

Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuccccc-

I was doing so well! I actually had thought I wouldn’t slip up for at least the rest of the day! But one lapse of attention drew me right back to square one. My friend heard my yeah and raised her eyebrow as I facepalmed and shrugged. She shrugged as well and beckoned me in for hot peanut butter cookies (yum!). The evening progressed and I was more diligent to make sure I didn’t speak even when I was caught off guard.

I realized as I walked home that having the computer there for easy communication was what probably lead me to lose a bit of my diligence. The computer allowed me to communicate almost as fast as I could talking. Also, it was a bit distracting from the actual purpose of the silent vow, as I was once again concentrating on what I was going to say as opposed to listening to the actual conversation and meaning.

Still, as far as first days go, I wasn’t too disappointed. I had done relatively well for being unprepared and unaware that this was going to happen when I woke up that morning. I was starting to realize how I normally used language by my slip ups, as well as what tools would aide and hinder in my quest the most. I also had already learned a lot more about group dynamics more than I would have if I was in the conversation as normal. Having my friends react so well to the challenge definitely helped me get through the day, and I’m super grateful for that.

Overall, it wasn’t the best of first days, but it could have been much worse! I went to bed feeling cheerful, and not knowing that one of the hardest challenges was about to present itself the next day…

Stay tuned for more stories of silence throughout the coming weeks!

Stories of Silence: First Impression

Hello Lovely People!

I’m finally getting my act together to blog about my experience with the week in silence, starting out small with my first interaction!

It wasn’t actually until 2 on Friday, April 4^th that I decided to do this endeavour. As stated in my first week in silence post, I decided to do this when I realized I had not talked to anyone all day while I was on my way to buy knitting supplies. Consequentially, the first interaction I had with anyone was at Baaad Anna’s Wool Store, a cutesy little hipster mecca style wool store on East Hastings.

The girl who was working was nice enough, about my age with cool orange and purple hair. She greeted me kindly; we had been in this situation before. I opened my mouth to say he-NO! NO I WILL NOT SPEAK!

 I froze for a millisecond, mouth open still. This was the moment to test my resolve, to see if I could actually do this. I steeled myself and, closing my mouth, nodded at her instead of my usual hello.

Yes! First test done! 39,492 to go!

I proceeded to browse through around the store, picking up the wool I wanted and staring longingly at the pretty alpaca wool I would have to sell my kidney to afford. I then stopped, mid alpaca wool caress. I realized I didn’t know what type of needle I needed for this project and had no idea how to ask the girl.

Crap! I did not think this through!

I looked around to see if there were any hipster leaflets I could write on, but none presented themselves. I smiled sheepishly at the girl who was watching me (I was the only one in the store). Quickly, I pulled out my phone and opened the notebook app, typing a quick “what needle do I need to sew wool with?” and passed it to her, complete with awkward smile/shrug. She looked at me a little strangely before taking it and reading it. She then smiled shyly and showed me where the needles were, before asking the inevitable “do you have laryngitis?”

I reaaaaaly didn't want to say yes. When I had thought my plan through in my head, I imagined miming out what I was doing, or at least having a notepad nearby to explain the personal challenged aspect. But this was kinda on the spot, and no planning had been made. I was feeling super nervous and doubting whether I could do this, so just for simplicity sake I nodded and took the needles from her. We then went to the counter, she checked my items out, I paid, she smiled good bye and I rushed out of the store.

Whew! Outta there! Thank God! In retrospect, it wasn’t actually all that awkward; as far as first interactions could go it was pretty tame. But I was still a bit disappointed with the laryngitis thing. If I was going to do this endeavour, I wanted to do it honestly, not use the cheap laryngitis escape route. This was not only about testing my resolve, but watching people’s reactions to something outside of the norm. It was a whole challenge to the way that we interact and communicate. So I couldn’t use excuses if I wanted the full effect!

I vowed to get the stuff I needed to communicate effectively without a voice what I was doing, so I wouldn't have to use that excuse again. I regret to say may have failed a couple more times on that aspect, but that’s for another story...

That’s all for now, tune in for others stories of the Week in Silence throughout the next couple of weeks!

Weekly Bits of Awesome April 15-21

Hello Lovely People!

This week's little bits of awesome :)


- Went out for breakfast a lot, including at a horrible hotel restaurant near my friends house (it was only good because it was so horrible) and The Reef, a cool jerk chicken place! Highly recommend it (get the pineapple shake)!
- Went to the Bird Sanctuary out in Langley! It was AMAZING! For an extra dollar you could buy bird seed and feed the Sandhill Cranes from your hand! There were plenty of rare ducks, some truly annoying Canadian geese, lots of little blackbirds and a couple of young (and adult) bald eagles! It's definitely somewhere you can go during nay season as the bird selection changes through the seasons.
- Discovered how to access the roof on my school (couldn't actually access it, but now I know how!) Also, in the process, discovered a random sunny alcove way up where no one ever goes that is perfect for reading!
- Went to a Game of Thrones get together, complete with BBQ! Episode three of season three was fantastically awkward, it was great!
- Saw Jurassic Park in 3D! I'm not a big 3D fan, but this one actually made it work (if only for the beautiful dinosaur shots). Also discovered this hilarious Hey! Jurassic Park video  afterwards!
- Bought a Bodhran drum! I have progressed to being able to hold it and the stick correctly, though I can still only play the most minimal of beats. Still, it's something!
- Had a bit of a birthday celebration shared with room-mates birthday. We tried to go out on the town but then realized it was a Friday and everything was packed, so the party ended up being at our house involving copious amounts of balloon throwing and Cards against Humanity!
- Walked by the Vancouver Art Gallery on 4/20. Translation: 5,000 pot smokers were crowded outside it, selling paraphernalia, listening to eclectic music and, of course, smoking up. The set up was even completed with a giant, smoking joint. It was certainly interesting to see.
- Went to a Wine and Cheese event involving a large amount of the people whom I'm going to Sasquatch Music Festival with! Consequentially  the wine made us want to do ALL THE THINGS AT SASQUATCH!! And now we all want to go. Right now. Also Jenga was played as well as turned into a domino structure, twas great!
- Walked by the Vancouver Sun Run as they were starting, GOD a lot of people do that! I vow to do it next year. YES! It can happen!
- Made a fort in Brother-From-Another-Mother's living room! Nothing feels better than sleeping in a fort.
- Went "bird" (cosplay) watching at the Fan Expo to see if there were any epic costumes! We couldn't actually afford to go to the convention, but we made it far enough into the centre to see some pretty good costumes, including: A Calvin and Hobbes, a hot Aragorn holding an adorable baby in a cloak, a HellGirl, a couple dozen Doctors, a Red and Blue, a Loki, LOTS of Batman characters, bundles of people in Adventure Time hats, Amon and his minions from The Legend of Korra, Axel and other Organization members from Kingdom Hearts, A Mal Reynolds, a few Ghostbusters and Banjo, Kazooie and Mumbo Jumbo! Cosplayers are fantastic!

That's all for this week! Till the next post, keep on smiling!